India to pay state fuel retailers $5.5 billion oil subsidy

Reuters Staff

2 Min Read

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India will pay 300 billion rupees ($5.5 billion) to state-owned fuel retailers forced to sell at cheaper government-set rates in the first half of the year, said three sources who saw the finance ministry’s confirmation letter.

India raised the price of diesel in mid-September, after a gap of more than a year, and capped annual sales of subsidised cooking gas cylinders to six per household.

The three fuel retailers received the letter from the finance ministry on Thursday morning, the sources said.

IOC, the largest fuel retailer, will receive a government subsidy of about 161 billion rupees, while HPCL and BPCL’s share will be about 66.7 billion rupees and 72 billion rupees respectively, they said. (Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by David Goodman)